VOL 27 ISSUE 10, March 9, 2026
Jamie Obletz, executive vice president and chief operating officer of Delaware North, was profiled by Buffalo Business First on March 4, discussing how the company is charting its next chapter – doubling down on experiential hospitality, from sports and entertainment to lodging, gaming and destination dining – while keeping our roots firmly planted in Western New York.
Read select excerpts from the article below, and the full story here.
It tells you something about a company when the top execs are busy watching the women’s Olympic hockey finals in the minutes leading up to an interview.
The TV in Jamie Obletz’s office was still playing when he stepped out for our 3 p.m. interview, which ended just in time for Obletz to catch the U.S. beating Canada 2-1 to win the gold in an overtime win.
It goes without saying that Obletz is a huge sports fan, having spent nearly three years as president of Delaware North Sportservice and another 21 months overseeing the company’s United Kingdom business, leading operations at nearly 50 global professional sports and entertainment venues.
In October, he moved up to COO at the $4.4 billion Buffalo-based hospitality and entertainment firm, one of the region’s largest private companies, where he now has global responsibility for operations and strategic growth.
“My entry point in 2016 was on that part of the business, but early on in that time period I knew I didn’t want it to end there. I didn’t want to be just an M&A expert. I was too enamored of the scale and size and complexity in all areas where the company operates,” he said. “In many ways, (the COO post has) been a role I’ve been wanting for many, many years.”
The company used 2025 to pivot, Obletz said, allowing it to reinvest into the businesses that have longer term growth opportunities.
“Those tough decisions in 2025 set us up well for 2026 and beyond,” he said.
Shedding the airport business allows for more investments into other experiential areas of hospitality, such as new sports business sites as well as gambling, lodging and parks and resorts.
And when it comes to lodging and parks, the company is looking at how to grow past its existing concessions with the National Park Service by investing in its own cabin-style lodging and glamping sites under the Waybound moniker.
That could mean opening a business just outside or adjacent to Yellowstone or Yosemite or the Grand Canyon where it can capitalize on existing traffic. He points to the company’s Tenaya at Yosemite, where the first Waybound cabins will open; and existing operations at Yellowstone and outside Vail, where guests can access snowmobiles and summertime ATV and fly-fishing excursions.
“Waybound is maybe a baby step to something bigger, where we’re looking at our current portfolio and investing,” Obletz said. “We’re still testing and learning, but it could be very meaningful. For a company with our history, we tend to be very disciplined as you can imagine, and to learn these things and make sure to get it right. And then once it’s perfected, you know, go big with it.”
This spring will see the opening of the new Miami Freedom Park Soccer Stadium, the next Major League Soccer contract for Sportservice and its first major contract in Miami, followed by the World Cup at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey. The company is also expanding its Australian operations in April with a contract at Victoria Racing Club in Melbourne.
The company employs 1,500 locally – including 450 at the corporate headquarters – and 45,000 globally. Obletz said in the next one to three years he expects the company to hire in Western New York
“There will be growth and assuredly, that is our expectation both in the number of associates that are here and most importantly, the level of employees here that we really want – more of that C-suite and middle management,” he said. “I think you’ll see us in the next couple of years a renewed focus on ensuring we have the right talent here in Western New York.”